A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A narrative about an artist's growth to maturity, in a modernist style, it traces the intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and an allusion to Daedalus, the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology. Stephen questions and rebels against the Catholic and Irish conventions under which he has grown, and culminates with his self-exile from Ireland in Europe. The work uses techniques that Joyce developed more fully in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. . A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man began life in 1903 as Stephen Hero-a projected 63-chapter autobiographical novel in a realistic style. After 25 chapters, Joyce abandoned Stephen Hero in 1907 and set to reworking its themes and protagonist into a condensed five-chapter novel, dispensing with strict realism and making extensive use of free indirect speech that allowed the reader to peer into Stephen's developing consciousness. The publication of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and the short story collection Dubliners earned Joyce a place at the forefront of literary modernism. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man won Joyce a reputation for his literary skills, and a patron in business manager at The Egoist Harriet Shaw Weaver. In 1917 H. G. Wells wrote that "one believes in Stephen Dedalus as one believes in few characters in fiction". Mogul Classics is proud to offer you the best paperback edition of this literary classic featuring one of the most acclaimed books of the 20th century.